Michigan marijuana social equity program favors college towns
A foreign observer to the greater Lansing metro area sees a stark disparity to its two central cities, split by U.S. 127.
East Lansing is a prosperous college town with a booming center of high-rises. The median house costs more than $200,000, a steep price tag in the Midwest. Political fights in the East Lansing Ccouncil race are about how to prepare for new luxury developments, not whether they will happen.
Lansing is a struggling Rust Belt city, still reliant on the shrinking auto industry now paralyzed by the month-long UAW strike at General Motors. The median housing price is just $89,000 and abandoned houses can be found in almost every neighborhood. The city boosts development with brownfield tax abatements for almost every private investment.
But to the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency, which wrote the rules determining who might be eligible for social equity discounts, it’s East Lansing that’s impoverished while Lansing is doing OK.
Read more: https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/michigan-marijuana-social-equity-program-favors-college-towns,13433